Drive East Coast Highway past the 2600 block right now and the garden looks like it's in trouble. Chain-link runs along part of the frontage. The gift shop that used to double as a restaurant sits quiet. The entrance sign points you around the corner to Dahlia Avenue instead of the spot you've used for years. If you've lived in Corona del Mar long enough to remember taking your kids to Little Seedlings Story Time or ducking in for afternoon tea, the whole thing can read like a slow goodbye.
It isn't one. Sherman Library & Gardens is in the middle of a $17 million rebuild, and the detail that gets lost in the fencing is where the new pieces are actually going. For sixty years, the best parts of this place, the restaurant, the original office, the founder's daily life, faced inward, toward the private garden, away from the street. The rebuild flips that. The new restaurant, the new entrance, even the donor recognition wall, are all being built to face Pacific Coast Highway for the first time in the institution's history.
A Garden Built With Its Back to the Street
Sherman Gardens started as one man's side project. Arnold Haskell moved to Corona del Mar in the 1950s, bought a small adobe house for his office, and by 1956 had added a wing and started landscaping the lot around it. Over the next decade he kept buying adjacent parcels until he owned the whole block. In 1967 he donated that land to the Sherman Foundation, an organization he and Moses Hazeltine Sherman's daughters had established back in 1951. The first sections of the garden opened to the public in 1966, and the rest of the campus, the conservatory, the central garden, the gift shop, the café, and the library, came together piece by piece through 1974. The foundation's own capital campaign materials note the property hadn't seen a significant remodel since 1970.
That original layout tucked everything inward. Even the early dining tradition reflected it: in the garden's first years, members of the Junior League of Newport Beach served light lunches to visitors through a small interior window built into the old visitor center and garden shop, a window that opened onto the Tea Garden, not the street. The whole institution was designed to be discovered once you were already inside the gate.
The current project, called Grow The Gardens, is explicit about reversing that. The plan converts the existing 932-square-foot office building into a visitor center with a 307-square-foot bell tower addition, and the existing 3,260-square-foot gift shop into a full restaurant with a new 1,319-square-foot rooftop dining room. Both additions face Pacific Coast Highway. Sherman's executive director, Scott LaFleur, has described the goal as building "the most beautiful, accessible, and impactful botanical garden and community hub in Southern California." Construction broke ground on February 26, 2026, timed to the garden's 60th anniversary, with Newport Beach Mayor Lauren Kleiman and Orange County Board of Supervisors Vice Chair Katrina Foley on hand along with the project's contractor, Slater Construction, and architects from Gensler. The work is expected to run about 18 months, putting completion in late summer 2027.
What's Actually Different If You Visit This Week
The garden hasn't shut down. What's changed is the shape of a visit. Admission moved to seasonal pricing on May 15, timed to the debut of a summer art exhibition, and the entrance now runs through Dahlia Avenue rather than the old Pacific Coast Highway gate while that section of the property is under construction. Regular dining service on site has been paused entirely since the old restaurant space came down, though several preview tea events have filled the gap through the year.
Here's the shift in plain terms:
| Before the rebuild | Right now (Aug 2026) | After completion (late 2027) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Main entrance | Off Pacific Coast Highway | Dahlia Avenue, temporary | New Bell Tower entrance on PCH |
| Restaurant | Tucked inside the garden, restricted access | Closed, no on-site dining | Hazeltine's, PCH-facing with rooftop terrace |
| Central garden | Shared with restaurant seating | Partially fenced for construction | Fully dedicated to education programs |
| Donor recognition | Inside the grounds | In transition | New wall at the PCH-facing entry |
The garden's membership base gives some sense of scale for why this matters locally. The foundation has said the rebuild will serve roughly 3,000 member households and 8,000 individual members, and the Newport Beach City Council has formally recognized Sherman as the Cultural Hub of Corona del Mar. This isn't a boutique renovation for a handful of regulars. It's the reshaping of a fixture most CdM residents have some relationship with, whether that's a wedding, a school field trip, or just a Friday morning story time in the Central Garden.
The Restaurant Swap Is the Clearest Evidence
If you want the reorientation in miniature, look at who's leaving and who's arriving.
The garden's longtime tenant, 608 Dahlia, closed after its lease at Sherman ended in October 2025, several months ahead of the February 2026 groundbreaking. Chef Roy, who ran that kitchen, didn't leave the coast. She relocated north to Sunset Beach and reopened this past spring as 608 Sunset, continuing the same California garden-to-table style in a new space meant to double as a community gathering spot for events and celebrations.
Taking the old restaurant's place is Hazeltine's, managed by Damian Orozco, owner of the Tea House on Los Rios in San Juan Capistrano. Where 608 Dahlia occupied a restricted spot inside the garden, Hazeltine's is being built new, on Pacific Coast Highway, with a Garden View Patio and Terrace and a full-service bar, planned to serve brunch, lunch, and dinner when it opens alongside the rest of the reconstruction. The name itself points back to the garden's roots: Hazeltine was the daughter of Moses Hazeltine Sherman, and the restaurant's design draws from photographs and letters between the two. Sherman's team has described the resulting look as "Sherman Funk," a mix of Spanish, Victorian, and non-traditional details meant to feel specific to this one property rather than imported from somewhere else.
Until Hazeltine's opens, Sherman has been running preview tea events under the same name. Afternoon Tea dates ran June 14, July 12, and August 16 this year, each paired with the summer art installation, with one more scheduled for September 13, themed around Grandparent's Day.
Even the Donor Names Are Moving to the Street
The reorientation shows up in the fundraising details too. Sherman recently introduced what it calls the Crown of the Sea Donor Wall, a piece built from decorative tile, handcrafted pavers, and custom ironwork positioned at the new front gate rather than somewhere inside the grounds. Naming rights for major features carry the same outward logic: the Julia Argyros Bell Tower and the planned bell itself will come from Sherman's old ranch property in Baja California, a detail LaFleur has pointed to directly, calling it "our new front door." The Samueli Central Garden Walk and the Jennifer and Anton Segerstrom Conservatory round out the list of major naming gifts. Even smaller donations, like a recent one from the Lamb family renaming the new visitor center after four generations of their own visits to the garden, are being folded into the PCH-facing entry sequence rather than tucked somewhere in back.
The Clock on This Particular Summer
If you've been meaning to see the garden's current art installation, the window is closing fast. Dog Days of Sherman, a summer sculpture exhibit by artist Elizabeth Laul Healey featuring six of her larger-than-life mosaic pieces, has been on view since May 16 and wraps September 7. The exhibit's centerpiece, a sculpture named Honey, is already on her way out ahead of that closing date, headed to Burning Man in Nevada, an event that opens today. Sherman's own team has said they'll miss her. The show was underwritten by longtime member Marilyn Macy Green, and the run included dog-friendly Yappy Hours and pet-themed classes that leaned into the exhibit's theme.
Once Dog Days closes, the next fixed date on the calendar is the second annual Botanical Ball on October 3, an evening event with individual tickets at $375 that includes garden strolls, a live auction, and dancing, with proceeds going toward the garden's education programs.
None of this changes what Sherman Gardens has always been for CdM: a place people bring out-of-town guests, hold weddings, and take toddlers for story time under the pepper tree. What's changing is which side of the property gets to show that off. For the first time in sixty years, the best of it will face the highway instead of hiding from it.
If you're weighing a move to Corona del Mar or thinking about what a home near this stretch of Coast Highway is actually worth once the rebuild wraps, that's the kind of neighborhood context worth having before you make a decision. Ashley Marie has spent more than a decade in coastal Orange County and can walk you through what's changing block by block. Schedule a consultation whenever you're ready to talk specifics.
